Brilliant slow moving psychological drama about a man
obsessed by
a strange love for an ice queen blonde, who suffers from a mental
breakdown,
a bad guilt trip and is seemingly possessed by the dark side of his
mind.
It's Alfred Hitchcock at his most disturbing, raising what seems to be
his own personal demons as he questions how love can be a matter of
lust
and manipulation. Hitchcock adapted it from the French novel D'entre
les
morts by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac; the writers are Samuel
Taylor
and Alec Coppel. Bernard Herrmann provides a riveting score. It's set
in
a foggy and alluring San Francisco that has plenty of Old World charm,
appealing deserted residential streets, and a Golden Gate bridge that
seems
scary as a landmark.

San Francisco detective John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James
Stewart) is
chasing a criminal along a rooftop, but his fear of heights (called
acrophobia)
takes root and inadvertently causes his colleague to fall to his death.
The bachelor John quits the force, confers with longtime platonic
friend
Marjorie 'Midge' Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes) about getting help for his
problem,
and accepts a snooping job with an old college chum he hasn't seen for
ages Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). He's to follow his rich gorgeous wife
Madeleine (Kim Novak), whose shipping company he runs, not because
she's
unfaithful but because she's suicidal. Madeleine becomes unconscious
and
possessed by another woman, who committed suicide at 26, the same age
she
now is. The detective is asked "Do you believe that someone dead,
someone
out of the past, can take possession of a living being?" John takes the
unorthodox job and follows his prey to the cemetery at Mission Dolores
where her ghost is buried, the art museum where there's a portrait of
her
ghost and a hotel which was once her ghost's home. John saves Madeleine
when she jumps into the San Francisco Bay, and falls madly in love with
her. When she climbs a church bell-tower and jumps to her death, his
fear
of heights phobia kicks in again and he can't help. Suffering a mental
breakdown and institutionalized for the past year, the lovesick
despondent
retired detective when released wanders the streets looking for
Madeleine
and mistakenly meets many such women until he locates Judy Barton. She
looks like Madeleine and he begins a tentative relationship with her,
where
he starts out by taking her to the same restaurant he dined with
Madeleine.
John obsessively gets Judy to look exactly like Madeleine; in a
chilling
shopping scene he bullies her into getting the same dresses Madeleine
wore.
It shows the domineering male at his worst, trying to make his love
conform
to what he envisions she should be like.

Hitchcock forgoes his usual suspense (he gives the twist
ending away
before the climax) and instead masterfully presents an eerie scenario
of
a psychologically distraught man caught in a dizzying whirlpool of
exploitation
and obsession, who lives in a dark dream world where his love is a form
of necrophilia for his dreamgirl and he wants only a second chance to
redeem
himself in the real world.

An animated and edgy Stewart and an icy Novak are perfect
for their
roles, as each conforms to their character's faults. In 1996 a new
print
of Vertigo was released, it restored the original quality of the colors
and was digitally enhanced. Over the years the reputation of this film
has grown, where upon its release it was not acclaimed by critics it
now
is considered in the company of H.'s best films--certainly one of his
most
personal and complex.